BOSTON — As well as they seemed to be playing all afternoon — with Gio Gonzalez dealing and the heart of their lineup scoring four early runs off Daisuke Matsuzaka — there was a point late in Saturday's game at Fenway Park when it looked like the wheels might fall off for the Nationals.

Over a four-batter stretch in the bottom of the seventh, the Nationals saw a four-run lead turn into a two-run lead, with the go-ahead run suddenly stepping to the plate.

And then? Well, a bullpen that has been reconfigured more times in 10 weeks than Davey Johnson would like to remember bore down and finished off a 4-2 win over the Red Sox that ensured yet another series victory for the team with baseball's second-best record.

"Any time you get a performance like that out of your starter, you come in and go into the seventh inning with a four-run lead, you gotta finish games like that out," closer Tyler Clippard said. "You lose games likeRead more »

I'm sitting here thinking about a 7-8-9 of Burnett/Clippard/Storen and I'm starting to feel more comfortable with the fact that our starters aren't getting past the 6th too often. That's an absolutely shut down late-inning combo.Also interesting how Davey treated Stras and Gio so differently in similar situation. All feel. He seems to be making all the right moves with the hook.

With respect, Verlander has 95 K's. Not sure he had them when Mark wrote this.And with five more strikeouts on the afternoon, his season total of 89 now ranks behind only one other pitcher in the majors: Stephen Strasburg, who racked up 13 K's Friday night to bring his season total to 92.

Crooked hat has been terrific out of the pen.While we're doing the Snoopy dance about the Nats, some fascinating subplots are developing on the farm.Downtown Corey Brown homered again tonight — his 16th, and his on base percentage still is hovering around .375. Meantime, in Potomac, another old friend is sending up "Remember Me?" smoke signals. Chris Marrero doubled in the first game and has homered in the nightcap.Come September call-ups the Nats will have some dandy bench bats. Barring a trade, that will be some battle in spring training as Brown, Marrero and Tyler Moore try to make the roster. 'Course, Bernadina, Nady and Ankiel could be gone.P.S. Hagerstown keeps knocking the ball all over the yard, scoring 11 runs through seven. Matt Skole hit his 13th homer. That team has so many promising outfielders — Goodwin, Burns, Ramsey, Souza (sp. ?) that it's a good thing the league uses a DH.

I guess people just assume its Burnett/Clippard/Storen. My question is, why not Storen/Burnett/Clippard?? Right/Left/Right. I honestly would not just give the closer spot to Drew when he comes back. I mean what has Clippard done in his entire time with us but throw lights out no matter where he is placed!! Until he gives me reason to move him out of that role, he is my closer!! Sorry Drew but you need to prove you deserve it and Clippard needs to have a couple poor outings before I make that switch. Wally Pip here we go!

>>>(The staff is averaging a modest 6.04 innings per start.)<<<That's not "modest". It'a actually a little above average. The Nationals starters currently rank 15th in innings per game.The Phillies starters are first with just 6.48 innings per game and the MLB average is 5.96.

All you have to do is look at Burnett, who struggled the first half of last season, and Hanrahan, who found himself when he left, to see why Davey and Rizzo are so slow to give up on Henry.Too many arms is not a big problem as long as there aren't too many egos.

PChuck – I have been noticing that our expectations are somewhat unrealistic this season, especially with our pitchers. You read the blogs and think they had a bad outing and then you look at the line and it's usually fantastic. Thanks for the perspective.

Giving the hook to Stammen after 1 walk, and leaving MGon in after he lets Salty bang one off the Monster and 2 runs score. A little inconsistency there Davey.Is Mike Gonzo a permanent lefty, for a pen that already has 3, or just a fill-in for Matteus, Storen, and MPHRod??I'm kinda a Craig Stammen fan. I'm also thinking that Mike Rizzo is the real recipient of frequent flyer miles when these guys shuttle back and forth.

I got to thinking about those two 59-win seasons that got us Strasburg and Harper and wondered how long it took the Nationals to get to the 34 wins that they now have on the 9th of June.2008: July 1st (34-51)2009: Aug 3rd (34-72)Amazing. I had forgotten all about Josh Bard, Anderson Hernandez, Alex Cintron and all those other guys who probably wouldn't have made any other MLB team.And only two of the 14 pitchers who started a game that year had an ERA below 5.00 (John Lannan & J.D. Martin)Just amazing.Farid in Pocatello ID

Forgive me if this is common knowledge, but I didn't realize that the Nats have already signed three of their top five picks, including their second rounder, Renda, the scrappy second baseman out of Cal.An MLB.com contributer named Mike Fiammetta posted an interesting story Thursday night on the Nats' draft strategy. You can find it on the Nats' official site under News. It's about seven stories down, now.He noted that 20 of the Nats' 40 picks were pitchers as the club continues to stockpile big guys with power arms. Giolito and Mooneyham are 6 foot 6. Alex Meyer is 6 foot 9.Kris Kline told Fiammetta that with the Nats' draft allowance of $4.4 million, they were talking money with players in every round. In the later rounds they passed on some high school prospects who wanted to go above slot.Fiammetta says 26 of the Nats' picks were college seniors — the players who have the least leverage.The bottom line is that the Nats went for it with their first pick, going after the best player available. But the need to save the most money for that player means they can no longer always target the BPA later in the draft.

I've noticed that of all the relievers, Davey has the shortest hook on Stammen. He must see something right away that Craig is wild (as he said in the post-game) or is really good.Mike Gonzalez got ambushed, you have to give credit to the hitter. Previous two guys can't find the strike zone, you expect maybe the hitter will take one–but he didn't. After that he did fine. Starting to see why Clipp doesn't come out there just throwing fastballs…Meanwhile, much as we love Harper, that guy Trout is something else, too. And–HARD TO HIT GONZALEZFrom Elias: Gio Gonzalez allowed only three hits to the Red Sox in 6 1/3 innings on Saturday, lowering his opponents batting average this season to .168. That's the lowest against a major-league pitcher in his first 12 starts of a season since Francisco Liriano held opponents to a .163 batting average in his first 12 starts in 2006, his rookie season.

Thanks MicheleS…..Guess I know what I'll be watching at 12:30. Here we go with the sweep demons again today. Hard to believe with the outstanding won lost record that they've only swept one series. With JZ on the mound and his lack of run support I worry the demons will be present in Fenway today. Alfred E. Neuman and I are worried.

On the "quick hook" issue, I saw DJ's post game interview and he saw Gio rushing – he noted the failure to cover first base which led to ALR's error, then the pitches in the dirt. Stammen was just clearly wild. You can't let him "work it out" when he walks a guy on six bad pitches. Plus, DJ wanted to make Salty (no way am I fighting autocorrect to spell that out) bat righty. M. Gonzalez gave up the hit, but it was the first pitch, you can't pull him for that. Then he showed what he is made of by getting Nava and Pedroia out. In all, thought DJ handled the staff well, using the wisdom he has gained by watching them all year in conjunction with situational imperatives during the game. Hard to fault him when we're winning.

Steve, that is crazy video, So glad we took back our own park. I can't understand how those Philthy phans got those tickets when the O's are fighting for first place? Perhaps they bought them at the beginning of the season, knowing they'd be less likely to lose in B'more than DC? Yes, that must be it!

Ghost Of Steve M. said… MicheleS, leave it to the Washington Post to sugarcoat it. I heard that at most there were 5,000 Whoriole fans out of the 46,000.You need to read more carefully. Although that article was printed in the Washington Post, it was written by the Baltimore Sun.

NatsLady said…I've noticed that of all the relievers, Davey has the shortest hook on Stammen. He must see something right away that Craig is wild (as he said in the post-game) or is really good.I agree with you, the irony is that Davey never saw this with HRod when everyone else saw it, lol